As it is generally known, in modern networked computer systems, electronic document conversion has become common and necessary in many circumstances. For example, even though Web browser technology has become the standard user interface for many computer users, many non-HTML files must nonetheless be stored, managed, viewed and edited when using Web-based server systems, such as what are generally referred to as Web portals. Examples of such non-HTML files include some files in certain formats defined or provided by Microsoft® Corporation and/or Lotus®. While there exist individual file converters or filters for converting certain types of documents to certain other document types, existing systems currently lack sufficiently efficient and/or functionally rich descriptions for constructing a document conversion service system.
It would therefore be desirable to have a document conversion system that provides the ability to start with a canonical representation of the conversion system, including a formal and functionally rich description of the conversion system.